The mother of murdered Sarah Payne has opened up on life without her daughter in an emotional chat.

Sarah was eight years old when she disappeared on July 1, 2000, after playing hide and seek with her three siblings in a cornfield near her grandparents’ home close to Littlehampton, West Sussex. Her body was found 17 days later in a field 15 miles away following an extensive search operation.

Sarah's older brother, then 14, saw Roy Whiting’s van speeding off when he went to look for her.

A painstaking forensic investigation proved Whiting had kidnapped the schoolgirl and dumped her body in undergrowth. It was revealed after his murder trial that Whiting had a previous conviction for sexually assaulting a child five years before her death.

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Sara Payne read out a letter to her daughter (Image: Supplied by WENN)

Sarah Payne was killed when she was eight years old (Image: PA)

After Whiting was jailed for life, Sarah's mum Sara Payne led a tireless campaign to change the law so parents and carers could apply to find out if someone in their area had a record for child sexual offences.

After being piloted across the country, Sarah's Law became national policy in 2011 and thousands of suspicious parents have made applications since.

Speaking on Loose Women , an emotional Sara read out a letter to her daughter and said: "We have to remember there is always hope, and you are one of those hopes."

She added: "She's changed the world of child protection.

"What she's done in her death I wish she'd have had the chance to have that in her life.

Sara doesn't want Whiting to be remembered (Image: Press Association)

"It was really important to me that Sarah was remembered and not him."

And Sara Payne describes losing Sarah as an out of body experience, with the 17 days it took for her to be found feeling more like 17 years.

She said: "I couldn't breathe, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. I was constantly trying to catch my breath.

"The more media we did, I thought if she could see me, she's got to see the hurt and come back."

The lasting stress resulted in the gran-of-four suffering two aneurysms with the latter, in 2009, leaving her in a coma, with doctors unsure whether she would survive.

Left with limited movement in her left arm and short-term memory loss, she vowed to work less to ensure that she stayed in her children's lives.

Sadly the stress and strain resulted in Sara divorcing Michael, Sarah's dad and her husband of 18 years, who developed a drink problem following the tragic death. He was jailed for 16 months in December 2011 after admitting attacking his brother with a glass after they had been drinking and was found dead at his home in 2014.

But Sara added: "I fight every day to not be angry.

"When it first happened, I said to my Dad, 'why me?' and he said, 'I dare you to pick someone else.'"